Halloween Cookie Cutters as Needle Felting Supplies

I can’t recall when or how I first heard about the craft of needle felting. But it is a technique that I’ve admired for a while and wanted to try out. A friend of mine told me that the easiest way to learn was to use cookie cutters as needle felting supplies for shaping the wool. So, when I thrifted these Halloween cookie cutters, I knew it was time to try out felting wool once and for all!

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Of course, I didn’t have ANY needle felting supplies in my arsenal, so I had to start from scratch. Luckily, though, I found a delightful starter kit that had all the needle felting supplies I would need to get started.

Honestly, I didn’t even know what I’d need to try felting wool, but the kit seemed thorough enough to me!

How to Needle Felt Wool with Cookie Cutters

Before I did anything else, I spent some time on YouTube watching videos of other people needle felting. This video showed the basics of felting, but this one was much longer and showed how to create finer details.

Either way, I was ready to give it a try after watching the videos. From the box of needle felting supplies, I grabbed some wool roving, the foam pad, and one of the larger felting needles.

Per the instructions, I cleaned the needle first.

Then, I separated some of the wool roving from the ball, making it thin and wispy before gently folding it into my cookie cutter. And underneath everything was the foam pad from the needle felting kit.

Next, I stabbed the wool roving with the needle in an up and down motion. I went slowly at first, but got the hang of it pretty quickly.

The wool roving began to shrink and get matted to itself (which it was supposed to do), and I’d periodically flip the entire thing over to do both sides.

As it became more and more felted, I added additional roving to make it thicker and stronger. Eventually, I was quite satisfied with it and removed it from the cookie cutter.

I decided I was done when it felt like a Brillo pad or steel wool. Not scratchy, of course, but felt strongly connected and thick when I squeezed it between my fingers. Does that make sense?

Next, I switched to a finer needle, put on the finger protectors, and cleaned up the sides (still gently stabbing). I also sharpened any angles and corners in my design this way (think of it like sculpting with your needle).

Now it was time for the more intimidating part– adding details, like the face on my owl!

Creating with Needle Felting Supplies

Because I had watched that longer video that I linked to earlier, I knew how to begin creating the face and eyes. So, I balled up some white wool roving and began to felt it to my owl (still using the fine needle). 

All the colors I used came from the needle felting supplies in the starter kit.

Next, I added smaller, tighter balls of yellow roving. Oh gosh, it looks more like sunny side up eggs than a face! But bear with me…

Stab, stab, stab…tuck, tuck, tuck…form, form, form. Once you get started, it becomes easier and easier to figure out how to “sculpt and stab” to create the details.

After that, I added small balls of black roving to the center of the yellow eyes and ringed them with wispy black roving, too.

And just like that…owl eyes were staring back at me.

I was feeling more and more confident with needle felting now. Finally, I finished up my Halloween owl with a beak, wings, and a wispy, fuzzy white belly.

Now I just needed to turn him into a Halloween pin! I flipped him over and needle felted a ball of roving over a bar pin.

To do this part, I held everything in my fingers and was very careful to not stab all the way through! I didn’t want to mess up those details I had worked so hard on.

Instead of needle felting up and down, I went in at a 45° angle to keep from ruining the front.

Halloween Cookie Cutters as Needle Felting Supplies

Of course, I had to try out a few of the other cookie cutter shapes! I decided I wanted a black cat and a jack-o-lantern as Halloween pins, too.

Obviously, I have a long way to go as far as technique is concerned, but OH MY GOSH. I understand now why people love needle felting so much!

It is a completely addictive craft, that’s for sure.

Think you’ll give needle felting a try now? Such a fun way to upcycle your vintage cookie cutters…

Here’s another idea for you, too. I also made some heirloom pumpkins to go in my vintage toy truck. I made these felted pumpkins by starting out with felted wool balls from this Etsy shop. Aren’t they adorable?

These are almost like that show that used to be on Food Network, “Semi-Homemade”. Because I definitely got some help from these pre-made felted wool balls. 

Of course, you could easily make your own wool balls, too. All I did was apply the same “ridge technique” to the felted wool balls as I did to these bandana pumpkins!

And if you enjoyed this upcycling idea for Halloween pins, you may also enjoy these candy corn decorations that I upcycled!

Craft on!

S

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